10 - Friday. Marcn 29, 1991 ~ North Shore News Sweat and sawdust Tolko: the North Shore’s last sawmill A BOOM boat operator at Nortm Vancouver's Tolko sawmill positions red cedar togs for cutting. A BOOM boat is busy pushing red cedar logs around. A maximill is cutting up logs into strips of four. An 18-wheeler is loaded with stacks of lumber. By Surj Rattan News Reporter All the above activity is taking place at a sawmill. Nothing sur- prising about that. But what probably is surprising for many is that the sawmill is not in the Interior of B.C., where the majority of the province’s mills are now located. The sawmill is located in North Vancouver. In fact, Tolko Industries Ltd.'s {nlet Cedar Division sawmill is the last working sawmill on the North Shore. At one time there were approx- imately 25 sawmills on the North Shore. L&K Lumber, previously the only other surviving mill in North Vancouver, filed for bankruptcy in March 198. The Totko mill itself has been in the same location, just east of the Second Narrows Bridge and off Doilarton Highway, for about 40 years. It was originally started by Earl Noble, who still lives in North Vancouver, and was called Nova Lumber. Tolko, which is based in Ver- non, and which has sawmills in Quesnel, Louis Creek, Heffley Creek, Merritt and Lavington, bought the sawmill from Nova in 1988. It is noisy and dusty inside Tolko’s operations. Men in overalls, hard hats, masks and earphones are standing next to electrical switches and buttons monitoring the process that cuts giant red cedar logs into pieces of lumber. But Tolko area manager John Reibin, who has been in the sawmill business since 1948, says ‘the lumber business wasn’t always this way. “(when f first started out in the business in the Interior, we had horses drag the logs and steam engines ran the mills. We (Tolko) used to bark our logs with a water barker. The water barker worked with high-pressure water and the log was barked as it rotated,”* says Reibin. In 1989 the mill switched to a mechanical barker because it was not allowed to run the water from the water barker back into a nearby pond. The only high-tech piece of equipment usec today at Tolko is the maximill and the doggie system, in which the log is picked up on two arms or ‘‘charges’’ and photo cells are used to measure the logs. The maximill is a piece of equipment used to cut up logs. A carriage runs on top of the max- imill and an ‘tend dogging system"? is used to lock logs into place before a quad saw cuts up the logs into strips of lumber. Reibin says the biggest changes to the industry came about only 10 or 15 years ago when the in- dustry underwent major techno- logical changes. “That's when we got into high tech and computers. Before that everything was just done by a per- son who would look at the logs to determine what could be = cut,"’ says Reibin. ‘‘Now it's all done by computers and scanners."* . The mill itself is not visible “ae . . CEDAR LOGS are brought up to a cradle where they wait to be dropped into place on the maximill for cutting. NEWS photos Mike Wakefiatd GIANT CEDAR logs enter Tolko sawmill and are sorted before they are put on the maximill to be cut into strips of lumber. from Dollarton Highway, which accounts in part for its low profile in the community. “Eve talked to people who have lived on the North Shore all their lives and they didn't know there was a mill here."" says Reibin. ‘*The mill burnt down in 1974 and then it was rebuilt to the size it is today." Tolko log buyers will fly as far as Alaska to inspect foe booms before cach purchase is nrade. The booms are then towed to Burrard folet for custom sorting and are then put in a marshalling area be- fore they are cut fe special fenpths. About 38 per cent af Tolka's product is seat into the Lower Mainland, mainly ta remanutiae- turing plants About three per eent is exported overseas. and the remainder is shipped to the United States, Reibin says Polke is ata disad santaye when it comes to buying fogs. Unpbke the bry forest and quite a few lumber companies, Folko does not have a log quota system. While Toiko’s Interior sawmills do have cutting rights, the North Van- couver mill does not. Reibin says he does not under- stand how the provincial govern- ment decides who will be given a log quota, which provides mills with a set amount of raw logs from B.C. forests. “How the government gaye out the quota system ots hurd to determine,”’ says Reibin. “We have ta buy 100 per cent of our lows en the apen market. We don't he a quota system for fogs from the (provineialh ges- ernment, We've had logs come as far away as Alaska and the Queen Charlotte Islands.*" While Tolko is the fast existing sawmill oon othe North Shore, Reibin admits he does not know how Jong ip will continue too re- main in North Vancouver. Times are tough for the cedar industry in Bc. Just before December, the mill was forced by declining market conditions to fay off its work force, which currently numbers about !80. The staff is now back to work, but the mill's future remains unclear. “The way the log supplies and the lumber market is, it’s hard to say chow Tong the sawmill will ast). Times are difficult,’ Reibin says. TE don’t think there's a cedar producer on the west coast who has made any money during the last iwo years. Youre lucky if you vet $345 or S400 for your product." Reibin adds that) North Van- couver is not the ideal focation for the sawmill. No, it really isn’t a good loca- tion. Tt all has to do with the way we bring in our logs. We can only bring our dogs in (hiough Burracd Inlet) during high tide, which is usually about 3 a.m. and thar cuts dawirton our fesibility.